Demand for network-based distribution of protected and unprotected data is increasing dramatically. Yet, many challenges exist that need to be addressed to effectively distribute data via electronic commerce such as: (1) conducting reliable, secure transactions necessary to build confidence with both information providers (e.g., data publishers) and data customers; and (2) ensuring that information providers or publishers can specify access controls to prevent piracy (e.g., installation of a software program on more than the allowable number of machines specified by a software program vendor), among other challenges.
A need exists for a data distribution infrastructure which addresses the aforementioned challenges and which overcomes a number of disadvantages associated with existing distributed data commerce systems. Existing methods for preparing software programs for retail sales provide several software programs on a compact disc (CD), for example, since a CD has substantial memory capacity. The unit price of each CD, however, can be excessive, particularly if the consumer only wishes to have access to one of the programs stored thereon. Accordingly, software vendors have been encrypting all but one of the software programs available on a CD and selling the CD for the price of the one program that is not encrypted. If the consumer wishes to access the other encrypted programs on the CD, the consumer can contact the software vendor at a later time to purchase the release codes to decrypt remaining software programs on the CD. The software retailer, however, does not profit from the purchases of release codes after the initial sale of the CD. Thus, problems are presented in the software retail chain. Software retailers are less likely to use retail space to display software programs for which they do not receive compensation from vendors for subsequent release code purchases. Consumers are therefore not presented with all of the available software by retailers, and software vendors are provided with a less effective retail chain.
Another problem facing software vendors is piracy of software programs. Piracy can be in a number of forms such as unlocking encrypted software for illegal copying and retail sale, as well as the installation of unlocked software onto more computers than permitted under the software license. A need exists for an encryption/decryption system for software programs which restricts the use of unlocked software to the purposes intended by the software vendor.